What kind of pied-a-terre would an 89-year-old British monarch require to make New York City feel like an extension of the royal palace? According to The Real Deal, that would be an $8 million, three-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom apartment on the 18th floor at 50 United Nations Plaza.

APQueen Elizabeth II

Is it Buckingham Palace East? Well, no. The Norman Foster-designed building in Turtle Bay is far more sleek and modern, and there’s nary a beefeater standing sentry in this luxurious, secure and private building adjacent to the U.N.

What drew the queen to this unit? It might have something to do with the 50-foot long dining room and grand foyer, suitable for large-scale entertaining. There’s also a private motor court and garden entry to the building. Last, but not least, the queen has tapped the shoulder of architect Foster before — when she knighted him back in 1990.

And if the queen winds up making only rare use of the place, perhaps she’ll allow her grandchildren and great-grandkids to use the pad the next time they’re in town to hang out with Jay Z and Beyonce at a Brooklyn Nets game.

One goal when you’re selling your house is to get as much money as possible. It can be tempting to overprice. There’s always a chance you might score big. Right?

Technically, yes. But that doesn’t mean testing the market by setting your home’s price above what the house is worth is a good strategy. In fact, there are many reasons not to test the market this way.

1. You won’t get offers (but your neighbors might).

It’s great to be a good neighbor, but unintentionally sacrificing your sale to help your neighbors sell their homes might be going a bit far.

When you price too high, you’re “helping sell the other homes in the neighborhood that have listed for less,” says Brad Chandler, a Virginia real estate agent.

After seeing your high-priced home, buyers may be eager to get the better-value house nearby — even if they liked your home better.

2. You lose credibility.

Buyers are savvy. They’ve usually done the research and have a ballpark idea of what homes in your neighborhood are worth. When you price too high, people might decide not to even look at your property.

3. Not everyone likes to play “Let’s Make a Deal.”

A common reason sellers price high is that it leaves room for negotiation. The problem with this tactic? If buyers overlook your house because it’s out of their budget, there will be no one to negotiate with.

Some sellers who price high are given false hope by agents who are uncomfortable telling their clients the truth.

“Beware of ‘sign agents,'” says Jerry Grodesky, an Illinois real estate broker. What’s a sign agent? Some agents may agree to any price you want just to get their sign on your lawn.

Roh Habibi, star of the TV show “Million Dollar Listing San Francisco,” says that some agents like the prestige of having a high-priced listing associated with their name.

Instead of listing at the inflated price, Habibi says, he gets sellers to “come to realistic expectations of what the home will likely sell for.”

5. You squander the early days.

Sellers are in the driver’s seat the first 30 days a house is on the market. The listing is still new, so you have buyers’ attention.

The ideal scenario is that you price to sell in the first two weeks, says David Feldberg, a California real estate broker. That way, you stand to get multiple offers.

“When you price a home too high, you waste some of the time [during which] you have the most leverage with any potential buyer,” says Feldberg.

6. Your house gets stale.

If your house is on the market longer than 30 days, buyers will start wondering whether something’s wrong with it.

“Real estate agents refer to this as a stale home,” says Texas real estate agent Sissy Lappin, co-founder of ListingDoor.com. She adds, “When you price your home too high, all you’re doing is putting blood in the water for the sharks who will wait until you lower your price.”

And here’s the real problem: When you do drop the price, you often get less for your house than if you offered a realistic price from the start. California real estate agent Drew Nelson explains that the longer a house sits on the market “translates directly to a larger discount from list price to ultimate sales price.”

7. People won’t even see your listing.

People generally set up search parameters by price when looking online for a home.

Let’s say your house is worth $319,000, but you’re asking $330,000. You won’t capture buyers who search for houses within the $300,000 to $325,000 range.

“But if the house were priced properly, it would show up in the buyer’s search results,” says Troy Balakhan, a Florida real estate agent.

8. The house won’t appraise at the high price.If you’re selling to buyers who are getting a mortgage — in other words, most buyers — the lender will need an appraisal.

“If comparable home sales over the last six months and current market conditions don’t support your sales price, then your buyer won’t get the mortgage,” explains Lawrence Sanek, a Florida real estate agent.

Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed loans rose this week, with the current rate borrowers were quoted on Zillow Mortgages at 3.96 percent, up 18 basis points from the same time last week.

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose to 3.98 percent Friday, then hovered there before settling at the current rate on Tuesday.

“Rates jumped sharply last week — first on the heels of news that the European Central Bank’s bond buying program may end sooner than expected, then an exceptionally strong U.S. jobs report,” said Erin Lantz, vice president of mortgages at Zillow. “We expect less volatility in this data-light week.”

Andrey Popov/GettyAbout 30 percent of homeowners 65 and older were paying a mortgage in 2013, up from 22 percent in 2001.

By Paul Wiseman
AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Al and Saundra Karp have found an unconventional way to raise money and help save their Miami-area home from foreclosure: They’re lining up gigs for their family jazz band.

They enjoy performing. But it isn’t exactly how Al, an 86-year-old Korean War vet, or Saundra, 76, had expected to spend their retirement.

Of all the financial threats facing Americans of retirement age — outliving savings, falling for scams, paying for long-term care — housing isn’t supposed to be one. But after a home-price collapse, the worst recession since the 1930s and some calamitous decisions to turn homes into cash machines, millions of them are straining to make house payments.

The consequences can be severe. Retirees who use retirement money to pay housing costs can face disaster if their health deteriorates or their savings run short. They’re more likely to need help from the government, charities or their children. Or they must keep working deep into retirement.

“It’s a big problem coming off the housing bubble,” says Cary Sternberg, who advises seniors on housing issues in The Villages, a Florida retirement community. “A growing number of seniors are struggling with what to do about their home and their mortgage and their retirement.”

The baby boom generation was already facing a retirement crunch: Over the past two decades, employers have largely eliminated traditional pensions, forcing workers to manage their retirement savings. Many boomers didn’t save enough, invested badly or raided their retirement accounts.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office for Older Americans says 30 percent of homeowners 65 and older (6.5 million people) were paying a mortgage in 2013, up from 22 percent in 2001. Federal Reserve numbers show the share of people 75 and older carrying home loans jumped from 8 percent in 2001 to 21 percent in 2011.

What’s more, the median mortgage held by Americans 65 and older has more than doubled since 2001 — to $88,000 from $43,400, the financial protection bureau says.

In markets hit hardest by the housing bust, a substantial share of older Americans are stuck with mortgages that exceed their home’s value. In Atlanta, it’s 23 percent of homeowners 50 and older, according to the real-estate research firm Zillow. In Las Vegas, it’s 26 percent.

In the worst cases, hundreds of thousands of older Americans have lost homes to foreclosure. A 2012 study by the AARP found that 1.5 million Americans 50 and older lost homes between 2007 and 2011.

In mid-2010, Tod Lindner lost his oceanfront home in California’s Marin County. He ran into trouble after the finance company that employed him was acquired and the new owners refused to pay him fees he contended he was owed.

Lindner had bought the house for $330,000 in the late 1980s. But he’d refinanced to pull out money to invest, swelling the mortgage to $680,000. Lindner tried to work out a modified mortgage, but his bank foreclosed instead. He and his wife sought bankruptcy protection, rented an apartment and slashed their spending.

“At age 70, I just started working for another company” in banking, Lindner says. “My plan would have been to retire.”

Seniors fell into housing trouble in varying ways. Some lost jobs. Some overpaid for homes during the housing boom, thinking they could cash in later.

Prices crashed instead.

Some made unwise decisions to refinance mortgages and pull cash out of their homes to meet unexpected costs, help their children or embark on spending sprees.

Jim, 67, and LaRue Carnes, 63, moved to Sacramento, California, in 1978 and bought a house for $54,000. For 33 years, Jim worked as a newspaper reporter and editor. They refinanced their mortgage several times and pulled money out of the house and took on higher mortgage payments. “Foolishly, like so many Americans, we used the house as a bank,” LaRue says.

In 2011, Jim was laid off, and the couple fell behind on mortgage payments. Three times, they dipped into retirement savings to fend off foreclosure. Eventually, with a $25,000 grant from a state program, Keep Your Home California, they negotiated a new mortgage they could afford.

Still, they’re still struggling. Once a month, they eat free breakfast at a church, bringing home bagels and fruit. They “never thought we would be partaking of such,” LaRue says.

The Karps, the Florida couple with the family jazz band, bought their three-bedroom home in North Miami Beach, Florida, for $77,000 in 1980. They refinanced, partly to pay down credit-card debt, and their mortgage swelled to $288,000.

Al kept working as a tax accountant into his late 70s. But Alzheimer’s disease forced him into retirement.

The couple is getting by on about $2,500 a month in Social Security and Veterans Administration benefits, plus food stamps and help from their two sons. They stopped paying the mortgage and are fighting foreclosure in court.

To ease the stress and earn some cash, they perform old musical standards as the Karp Family — Saundra on vocals, Al on sax, son Larry on keyboards.

“I’m trying desperately to stay here,” Saundra says. As for Al: “He thinks the mortgage is paid. He hasn’t got a clue.”